This is the mission of Make-A-Wish. When we were approached so long ago by Doctor Bob or favorite Psycologist at CHCO to tell us he nominated us for a wish we didn’t really know what it was all about. Sure I had heard of the Make-A Wish organization, but didn’t really know all about it. When we learned a little bit more [NH1] about it at first I was terrified of course because not everyone who is sick gets a wish of course. Only certain children and only those that have life threatening illnesses are selected from, so that is not a very desirable group to be in. When we were told Daniel would get a wish he was given the rules and restrictions and Bob told him at the time “you only get one of these, so make it good. Be creative and think outside the box. “ Well at the time it was VERY early after diagnosis. In fact I don’t remember exactly when it was. I remember we were still in room 750 I think so we were still in the first months but Daniel was nowhere near being well enough to receive a wish and had more than enough time to come up with one. Well if I had to clock the amount of hours we have spent on wish development (literally up until today) we would be talking probably hundreds. Daniel and I spent a tremendous amount of time researching previous wishes, not to replicate one and finding out what has been done. My personal favorite was the kid that gathered the original cast of Gilligan’s Island together and reenacted being rescued from a deserted island. Come on people, now that is original. But this is Daniel and you had to know that it was going to not be a typical meet your favorite Disney princess at the Magic Kingdom wish. Honestly a few that he came up with were over the top and one or two were so inappropriate they were too shocking to repeat. He had one with a Kardashian or two if I remember correctly, one with the wonders of the world and yes those two are mutually exclusive. So wish development became a constinuous theme for months and months of our hospital stay and without him even knowing it subconsciously became a very important motivator in his whole healing path. All without knowing if it would ever be possible. When he finally decided on “THE WISH” and was through transplant and home for a period it was time to meet with our wish granters and present our wish. The lovely Julie and Amanda came to our home with warm hearts and gifts for Daniel and Matthew and had no idea what they were walking into. Daniel methodically presented his plan and with eyes wide open these shell-shocked volunteers listened. Daniel then strategically presented his backup wish with a quick one-two punch. This secondary wish was so far fetched it was impossible and it was exactly Daniel’s plan to make his actual wish look more doable. He is no dummy this kid.
So here we are almost two years later and it is official and I can FINALLY tell you Daniel’s wish has been approved with A LOT of planning and A LOT of powers that be:
Now announcing the 31st pick for the Superbowl Champions Denver Broncos, in the first round at the NFL Draft in Chicago on April 28th on prime time with Roger Goodell – Daniel Hailpern
Can you believe it? I do. Wishes really do come true.